yet in a contract limited with regard to time, there can be no doubt that he has rendered the most essential service to the adventurers, by turning to all possible account the powers of the native machinery, which have been much underrated in Europe. What he has been enabled to effect by a proper application of them both at Valenciana, and in the mines of Sirena and Villalpando, may serve as an encouragement to those who are engaged in speculations in districts, where, either from the scarcity of fuel, or the difficulty of access, European machinery never can be introduced. The absurdity of the indiscriminate use of it, contemplated in 1824, has been already demonstrated. Many mines may be made to produce a reasonable profit for a given time by the use of the Malacate, that would never repay the costs of a steam-engine, doubled, as they always must be, by the expence of conveying it from the coast. There is a point indeed beyond which the Malacates cease to act; yet even then, with so many obstacles to be overcome, it is only on mines the richness of which is well ascertained, (as at Real del Monte, or Bolaños,) that it would be prudent or advisable to hazard the substitution of European machinery, with all its attendant train of workmen and artificers.
Besides the mines already enumerated, the Anglo-Mexican Company possesses that of Mĕllādŏ, belonging to the family of Rūhl. The contract and Alimentos are the same as those of Villalpando. The
